Apparatus for unspooling wire and the like



Oct. 22,1968 c. w.wAs HBuRN 3,406,926

APPARATUS FOR U'NSPOOLING WIRE AND THE LI-KE Filed Jan. 16, 1967 4 Shets-Sheet 1 MENTOR Charles W. Washburn ATTORNEYS Oct. 22,. 1968 c. w. WASHBURN APPARATUS FOR UNSPOQL'ING WIRE AND THE LIKE Filed Jan. 16, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 7/ v /47//& v I i FIG. 2.

mvem'on H m. v" w E m d Oct. 22, 1968 c. w. WASHBURN 3,406,926

APPARATUS FOR UNSPOOLING WIRE AND THE LIKE Filed Jan. 16, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR Charles W. Washburn we: m9 \Y\ \1 Ar////// /r///r/ ///////////////AI////// fi in .3. 02 Q2 p Ill/ff! I fl/l/ 1/!!! /J P 8 ATTORNEY) Oct. 22, 1968 c. w. WASHBURN APPARATUS FOR UNSPOOLING WIRE AND THE LIKE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Jan. 16, 1967 m R U V O .D E Th N NS R Wm ,0 T m T MWA S mm% r G h C United States Patent 3,406,926 APPARATUS FOR UNSPOOLING WIRE AND THE LIKE Charles W. Washburn, Elizabeth, Pa., assignor to Copperweld Steel Company, Glassport, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Jan. 16, 1967, Ser. No. 609,618 14 Claims. (Cl. 242128) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The unspooling apparatus is designed to withdraw the wire or other filamentary material from the spool without rotating the spool. This avoids the unspooling of a large quantity of tangled wire which otherwise results from the inertia of a rapidly spinning spool when the wire is inadvertently broken. The apparatus includes a rotatable guide mounted coaxially of the spool and movable axially along the winding length of the spool while the guide is being rotated. The guide is biased toward the rear end of the spool, and the wire is extracted in a perpendicular plane to prevent scufi'ing against adjacent wraps of the wire. The wire is withdrawn over the rotatable guide and spacedly over the front end of the spool with result that the tension in the withdrawn wire acting against the biasing means coupled to the rotatable guide causes the guide to traverse the spool so that the wire is always withdrawn tangentially to the spool and perpendicularly to its axis. To minimize further the scufiing of the withdrawn Wire, the rotational mounting of the wire guide and the passing of the withdrawn wire thereover causes the guide to quickly assume the speed of rotation of the withdrawn wire about the spool. In a modified form of the unspooling apparatus, the rotatable wire guide is provided with means for initially and independently rotating the wire guide at the speed of the withdrawn wire so that the wire itself does not have to overcome the inertia of the wire guide in bringing the wire guide up to the unspooling speed. After commencement of the unspooling operation, the action of the independent drive means can be terminated and the wire guide rotated at constant speed by the passage of the wire thereover.

The present invention relates to apparatus for unspooling wire and the like and more particularly to apparatus of the character described for removing relatively fine wire at high speed from a spool containing the same without scuffing, kinking or breakage of the wire.

The invention is described primarily in connection with unspooling relatively fine gauge wire such as used for producing bell wire or hook-up wire or for fabricating multi-stranded electrical and telephone cables. However, it will be readily apparent that the invention can be utilized for unspooling a wide variety of easily damaged materials such as thread, yarn, string and other filamentary materials. The aforementioned wire is customarily manufactured and spooled in a wire mill. Subsequently, the wire is removed from the spool, insulated and stranded into cables for other uses. In handling the wire, extreme care must be exercised inasmuch as the wire has only a limited tensile strength and is therefore subject to breakage or to stretching which would result in undesirable reduction of diameter and of tensile strength.

In many applications it has previously been the practice to unspool the wire tangentially from the spool, with the wire being drawn from the spool while the spool is rotated. While this arrangement is ractical for many applications, it is frequently desired to withdraw the wire or other material at extremely high speeds, for example in the neighborhood of 4000 feet per minute. At such speeds ice if the wire breaks, or if the fabricating equipment to which the wire is being supplied is suddenly stopped for some reason, the inertia of the rapidly rotating spool and the remaining wire wound thereon will cause the spool to continue unwinding a substantial length of the wire. Such wire not only entails considerable time and labor to remove it from the equipment, but in many cases becomes tangled or kinked and thus unfit for further use.

Attempts have been made to avoid these difficulties by unspooling the Wire from one end of a stationary spool. A stationary circular guide is juxtaposed to the end of the spool and the wire is pulled from the spool and outwardly over and around the circular guide. This arrangement, however, presents serious drawbacks as a result of pulling the wire diagonally from the spool, which causes scutfing and kinkingof the wire as well as frequent breakage.

I overcome these problems by providing novel apparatus for unspooling wire and the like comprising a support for stationarily supporting a spool of said wire, a generally circular guide member for said wire, means for mounting said guide member substantially concentrically and radially outwardly of said spool, said mounting means being positioned for movement axially of said spool, means for withdrawing wire tangentially from said spool over said guide and in one axial direction of said spool, and means for biasing said guide member in the opposite axial direction of said spool. In certain applications said mounting means includes an axially movable shaft, said support is hollow, and said shaft is inserted into said support and is longitudinally movable therein. In still other applications, means are provided for rotatably mounting said guide member and for imparting rotation thereto.

My novel apparatus thus is arranged for removing wire or other filamentary material tangentially from the spool rather than diagonally so that scufling, kinking, breakage or other damage to the wire is avoided. Tangential removal of the wire in this fashion is accomplished while the spool is held motionless so that inertial unwinding thereof is avoided in the event of inadvertent breakage of the wire. Tangential or radial removal of the wire is accomplished by a movable or floating guide which is positioned automatically substantially in the transverse plane of radial removal of wire with respect to the spool. My novel guide is not only movable longitudinally of the spol, but is rotated thereabout to facilitate unspooling of the wire while the spool is held stationary. In other arrangements of my apparatus, means are provided for initially accelerating the movable guide in its rotational direction so that when the apparatus is used with relatively fine wire or other filamentary material the wire is not required to overcome the inertia of the guide in bringing the guide up to its rotational speed. On the other hand, my novel unspooling apparatus, including the aforementioned movable guide is sufficiently compact that it can be contained within an external guide of funnel shape or the like to prevent whipping of the Wire.

During the foregoing discussion various objects, features and advantages of the invention have been set forth. These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention together with structural details thereof will be elaborated upon bringing the forthcoming description of certain presently preferred embodiments of the invention together with presently preferred methods of practicing the same.

In the accompanying drawings, I have illustrated certain presently preferred embodiments of the invention and certain presently preferred methods of practicing the same wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a vertically sectioned view of one form of unspooling apparatus arranged in accordance with my invention;

/ 3 FIGURE 2 is an enlarged, partial, cross-sectional view of the apparatus as shown in FIGURE 1 and taken along reference line 11-11 thereof;

FIGURE 3 is a partial elevational view of the unspooling apparatus as shown in FIGURE 1 and taken along reference line IIIIII thereof;

FIGURE 4 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 but showing a modified arrangement of my novel unspooling apparatus and arranged in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged, partial, cross-sectional view of the apparatus as shown in FIGURE 4 and taken along reference line VV thereof; and,

FIGURE 6 is another enlarged, partial, cross-sectional view taken along reference line VIVI of FIGURE 4.

Referring now more particularly to FIGURES 1 to 3 of the drawings, the exemplary form of my novel unspooling apparatus 10 is illustrated therein as mounted upon a portable platform 12, which is provided for this purpose with wheel means 14 and skid means 16. An upstanding support 18 is mounted upon the platform 12, and a stationary mandrel or support 20 is rigidly and horizontally secured thereto by a pair of spaced clamping blocks 22 as better shown in FIGURE 2. The mandrel 20 is thus arranged to project into the large end of a guide funnel 24 or the like, which likewise can be mounted on the support 18 or independently supported as desired. The wire, string or other filamentary material is removed through the small opening 26 at the other end of the funnel 24, and the cylindrical and frustoconical sidewalls 28 and 30 of the funnel 24 prevent whipping of the wire when it is removed at high speed.

When thus supported, the projection or cantilevered portion of the mandrel 20 is adapted to support spool 32, which is positioned thereover against an annular stop 34 rigidly secured to the mandrel 20. The spool 32 can be secured against rotation on the mandrel 20 by any suitable means, for example the catch lever 146 of FIGURE 4. As better shown in FIGURE 1, the guide funnel 24 and the cantilevered portion of the mandrel 20 are positioned during operation of my apparatus such that the spool 32 is contained completely within the confines of the funnel 24.

After the spool 32 has been positioned on the mandrel 20, an axially movable guide or cage 36 is mounted upon a plug 38 which is secured to the adjacent end of an axially movable or telescoping tubular shaft 40 mounted within the stationary mandrel or support 20 for telescoping movement relative thereto. In furtherance of this purpose, the telescoping shaft 40 is inserted through an elongated sleeve bearing 42 which spaces the shaft 40 inwardly of the stationary mandrel 20. The bearing 42 is positioned within the mandrel 20 by shoulder portion 44 thereof and by a pair of retainer rings 46. Rearward movement of the shaft 40 is delimited by end plug 46 secured to the outward end of mandrel 20, while forward movement of the shaft is delimited by stop 48 on a key or guide member 50. The key 50 in this example is seured to the inner surface of the tubular mandrel 20 by a number of mounting bolts 52 and cooperates with a notched guide cap 54 secured to the rear end of the shaft 40. As better shown in FIGURE 2, the key 50 not only defines the length of axial movement of the shaft 40 and the guide cage 36, but in addition prevents turning thereof relative to the mandrel 20 by engagement of notch 56 in guide cap 54 with the aforementioned key 50.

Desirably, the shaft 40, on which the guide cage 36 is mounted by means of end plug 38, is lightly biased toward the rear or cantilevered end of the mandrel 20 by means of tensional coil spring 58 secured at its forward end to hook 59 of the plug 38 and at its rear end to an adjustable anchor mechanism 60. The mechanism 60 includes a threaded adjustment hook 62 and an elongated adjustment nut 64 which is slidably inserted through til aperture 66 of the aforementioned mandrel end cap 46. The adjustment nut 64 is headed at 68 to position the adjustment nut in the mandrel end cap 46 and is provided with a suitable wrench or other tool engaging configuration. To facilitate turning and adjusting the nut 64 when making such adjustment, rotation of the threaded hook 62 is prevented by holding a screw driver or the like in screw driver slot 70. The purpose of the biasing spring 58 and its asociated adjustment mechanisms 60 will be discussed below.

The guide cage 36 is provided with a circular rod 72 which is supported concentrically of the cage 36 by a plurality of suitably Shaped arms 74 which are stabilized by ring 76 as better shown in FIGURE 3 of the drawings. The arms 74 are spaced about the cylindrical periphery of a central supporting hub 78 which in turn is positioned on a journal 80 forming part of the plug 38. The circular guide bar 72, together with the balance of the cage structure 36, thus is supported substantially coaxially of the spool 32. The cage 36 is retained on the plug journal 80 by means of retaining ring 82 which engages a reduced or necked-down portion 84 of plug 38. The retaining ring 82 is secured against removal by set screw 86 which engages recess 88 therefor in the necked-down portion 84. Accordingly, the cage 36 is moved axially of the spool 32 by attendant axial movements of its supporting shaft 40. However, both the cage 36 and the shaft 40 are biased toward the solid outline portions as shown in FIGURE 1 by the biasing spring 58.

Wire 90 is unwound tangentially from the spool 32 by passing over the circular guide 72 as better shown in FIGURE 1, and thence axially through the reduced opening of the guide funnel 28. The tension upon the wire 90 as it is withdrawn from the funnel 28 in this manner, by contact with the circular guide bar 72, causes the guide bar to be positioned radially outward from the point of withdrawal of the wire 90 with respect to the traverse length of the wire on the spool 32. For each unspooling operation, the biasing spring 58 is adjusted by mechanism 60 to counterbalance the normal unspooling tension on the wire 90 as it passes out of the guide funnel 28 so that the circular guide 72 is positioned such that the wire 90 is always withdrawn substantially perpendicular from the stationary spool 32. In consequence, the circular guide bar 72 is caused to traverse the spool 32 between its solid outline position as shown in FIGURE 1 and its chain outline position 92 adjacent the other end of the spool 32. The cage 36, and with it its axial shaft 40, is thus caused to float between the ends of the spool 32 and at all times assumes a position therebetween such that the radial run 90a of the wire is always withdrawn tangentially from the stationary spool, i.e. in a plane normal to the longitudinal axis thereof.

In many applications the guide cage 36 can be stationarily mounted on its tubular shaft 40 so that the guide cage is moved only axially of the spool 32 under the impetus of the unspooling wire 90 or other filamentary material. In such case the unspooling wire will not only bend in the axial direction over the outward surface of the guide bar 72, but also will slide circumferentially thereabout as it is unwound from the spool.

To minimize the sliding engagement between the wire 90 and the circular guide bar 72, and thus to permit the highest possible unspooling speeds, the guide cage 36 can be rotatably mounted upon the shaft plug 38. In furtherance of this purpose, the cage hub 78 is mounted upon the plug journal 80 by suitable anti-frictional means such as the ball bearing arrangement 94. Accordingly, as the wire 90 is withdrawn from the spool 32 over the circular guide bar 72 the circumferential motion of the wire about the circular bar 72 imparts rotary motion to the guide cage 36 such that the angular velocity of the guide bar 72 rapidly approaches the angular velocity of the unspooling movements of the wire 90 about the spool 32.

I have also found that at the higher unspooling speeds it is desirable to commence the aforementioned spinning of the guide cage 36 before withdrawing the wire 90 at very high speeds over the guide bar 72. Spinning of the cage 36 can be accomplished by a variety of means, for example, by an electric motor (not shown) operating through a suitable slip clutch, by a conventional air motor, or by the reaction motive means presently to be described. The rotative means can, in most applications, he decoupled from the guide cage 36 after wire 90 has reached its required unspooling velocity. At such times, the movement of the wire circumferentially about the guide bar 72 is sufiicient to maintain the rotational movement of the guide cage 36 as Well as axial movement thereof as described above.

One arrangement of rotating means for the guide cage includes a pair of oppositely directed fluid jet structures 96 and 98 as better shown in FIGURES 4 to 6 of the drawings. The jet tubes 96, 98 are secured to the hub 78' of the guide cage 36'. The jets 96, 98 extend radially from the hub 78 a sufficient distance to impart reactional rotative forces to the guide cage 36', when a predetermined quantity of air or other fluid is expelled through the jets 96, 98. However, the jets 96, 98 do not protrude radially to the extent of offering interference to the wire or string 90 being extracted from the funnel 28.

The arms 74 of FIGURES l and 3, by way of example, are replaced with a circular supporting disc 100 secured adjacent the inward lateral edge of the hub 78'. The circular guide bar 72 is spacedly and substantially coaxially supported from the disc 100 by a hollow frusto-conical support 102 as shown in FIGURE 4. The use of the supporting disc 100 permits the supporting structure 100-102 to be displaced axially from the jet structures 96, 98 and eliminates the possibility of interference with the tangentially directed jets issuing therefrom. Alternatively, the guide ring of 72' can be connected to the disc 100 by a plurality of circumferentially spaced rods or spokes (not shown).

Reaction air or other fluid is supplied to the jet structures 96, 98 through the longitudinally movable hollow shaft 40 and more particularly through an annular air passage 104 therein defined by an inner sleeve 106 desirably positioned coaxially within the shaft 40. The forward end of the inner sleeve 106 is sealed to projection 108 of the shaft plug 38. The other end of the inner sleeve is supported and positioned by shouldered ring 110 and snap ring 112.

Air is supplied to the annular passage 104 through a fitting 114 as better shown in FIGURE 5. A quick disconnect coupling 11-6 and air hose 118 can be secured to the fitting 114. The fitting 114 extends through an axially elongated slot 120 in the support tube with the length and ends of the slot 120 defining the range of movement of the guide cage 36' and its extreme positions denoted by the solid and chain outlines thereof in FIG- URE 4. To facilitate travel of the fitting 14 through the slot 120, the former is provided with a sleeve-type bearing 122 positioned on a nipple 124 forming part of fitting 114 for engagement with the slot edges.

At the forward end of the annular fluid passage 114, communication is established with T-shaped passage 126 provided in the plug member 38'. The passage 126 is further provided with a plurality of radial openings 128, with four being utilized in this arrangement, whereby the passage 126 also communicates with a circumferential manifold 130 defined by the adjacent outer surface of the plug 38', the bearings 94' and the juxtaposed inner surface of the hub 78'.

To provide for easy removability of the guide cage 36', the hub 78 is provided in two complementary portions 132 and 134, with the inner portion 132 being more or less permanently mounted upon the bearings 94 while the outer hub portion 134 is secured to the inner portion 132 by one or more set screws 136. A second n1anifolding chamber 138 is therefore enclosed between the hub portions 132, 134 and is communicated with the mani- 6 fold through apertures 140 and to the jet structures 96, 98 through apertures 142.

The inward end of the plug member 38 terminates in a hook 59, and the supporting tube plug 46' is provided with an aperture 66 to accommodate adjustable biasing means for the purposes described in connection with the tension spring 58 and adjustable anchor 60 of FIGURES 1 and 2. In the arrangement of FIGURES 4-6, however, the biasing means are provided in the form of a counterweight device including a string or cord 144 passing over pulley 146 and tied to hook 59'. The pulley 146 is rotatably mounted on standard 148 secured to base 12. Biasing force is provided by weight 150, which is movable between the solid outlinethereof in FIGURE 4 and its chain outline 152 in correspondence to the traverse length of the spool winding. In this arrangement, the path, thus defined, of the weight is partially enclosed by side walls 154 of the standard 148. The biasing force upon the guide 36 is adjusted by changing the value of the counterweight 150.

The arrangement of my invention as shown in FIG- URES 4 to 6 is otherwise similar to that shown in FIG- URES 1 to 3, with the exception that a spring lock device 146 cooperating with spool aperture 148 is provided for positioning spool 32' on the support tube 20'.

From the foregoing it will be readily apparent that novel and eflicient forms of unspooling apparatus have been disclosed herein. The apparatus is readily adaptable to wire and similar materials of differing diametric sizes and permits these materials to be unwound from their supply spools at very high rates of speed. Moreover, the wire or other filamentary material is withdrawn substantially radially or tangentially from the withdrawal point, which traverses the length of the spool, so as to prevent interlocking with adjacent wraps on the spool. Accordingly, scufiing, kinking, breakage and other damage to the wire or the like is avoided.

While I have shown and described certain presently preferred embodiments of the invention and have illustrated presently preferred methods of practicing the same, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously em bodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for unspooling wire and the like, said apparatus comprising a support for stationarily supporting a spool of said wire, a generally circular guide member for said wire, means for mounting said guide member substantially concentrically and radially outwardly of said spool, said mounting means being positioned for movement axially of said spool, means for withdrawing wire tangentially from said spool over said guide and in one axial direction of said spool, and means for biasing said guide member in the opposite axial direction of said spool.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said mounting means includes an axially movable shaft, said support is hollow, and said shaft is inserted into said support and is longitudinally movable therein.

3. The combination according to claim 2 wherein said shaft is spaced inwardly of said support, and cooperating keying means are mounted on said support and said shaft to prevent relative rotation therebetween and to delimit the longitudinal movement of said shaft relative to said support.

4. The combination according to claim 2 wherein said guide member is rotatably mounted upon said shaft so that the circumferential movement of said wire over and about said guide member can rotate said guide member.

5. The combination according to claim 2 wherein said shaft is a tubular member, said biasing means are mounted within said shaft, and said biasing means are coupled to oppositely disposed ends of said shaft and said support respectively.

'6. The combination according to claim 2 wherein said guide member includes a hub mounted on said shaft, a circular guide bar positioned coaxially of said hub, and a plurality of supporting arms secured to said circular bar and to said hub.

7. The combination according to claim 6 wherein a circumferentially extending stabilizing ring is secured to each of said arms at positions intermediate said circular bar and said hub.

8. The combination according to claim 5 wherein said support end is partially closed by an apertured plug member, adjustment means are coupled to said biasing means and positioned within said shaft, and said adjustment means include a headed adjustment nut protruding through said cap member and being rotatably mounted therein.

9. The combination according to claim 1 wherein means are provided for rotatably mounting said guide member and for imparting rotation thereto.

10. The combination according to claim 9 wherein said rotation imparting means include reactional motive means mounted on said guide member and having at least one fluid nozzle directed tangentially of said guide member.

11. The combination according to claim 10 wherein said motive means are mounted on hub means forming part of said guide member, said hub means including aperture and manifolding means for supplying reactional fluid to said motive means.

12. The combination according to claim 11 wherein said hub means are mounted for rotation on a longitudinally movable tubular shaft, said shaft including an inner sleeve spacedly and coaxially extending therethrough, said shaft and said sleeve defining an annular fluid passage communicating with said manifolding means.

13. The combination according to claim 12 wherein said support is an elongating tubular member, and said shaft is mounted therein for movement longitudinally thereof, said shaft is provided with a fluid supply fitting extending outwardly through a slot in said support, said slot extending in the direction of movement of said shaft and engaging said fitting to define the limits of movement of said shaft and of said guide member.

14. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said biasing means include a counterweight, a pulley rotatably mounted adjacent said guide member, and cord means secured to said guide and to said counterweight and passing over said pulley.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,487,889 11/1949 Moore 242-128 2,566,801 9/1951 Jackson et al 242128 2,963,240 12/1960 Jackson et al 242 428 LEONARD D. CHRISTIAN, Primary Examiner. 

